BBCA 5 - Friend Friday: Fall

Cardigan: J Crew
Shirt: Target
Cami: Target
Pants: Lauren Conrad via Kohl's
Scarf: vintage, thrifted
Shoes: Steve Madden
Earrings: Turkey

So this week for the visual Friend Friday, we're linking up our quintessential fall looks over at 260 Days, No Repeats. Of course, it's also the last day of my BBCA week, so my fall look also has a touch of pink.


I have to say that at this point, I consider myself an expert in fall looks. I've mentioned before that I live in the land of eternal fall, so I've built a lot of outfits around boots, cardigans, and scarves. To me, fall is about classic silhouettes, mixed neutrals, and piled layers.


I really like the simple white button up, navy chinos, and cognac flats, but I like them better with the purple cami, chartreuse cardigan, and patterned scarf. I love the pops of color peeking out, especially when all those pops serve to keep me warm.


Feel free to ignore my award winning under eye circles, mmkay? Let's talk about this scarf. How pretty are those pink and green and turquoise swirls? So pretty. Also, it keeps my ears warm and hides my crazy hair - both are bonuses in my world.

White shirt week day 2

Top: Target (gift from A)
Skirt: J Crew (gift from my mom)
Scarf: Target
Sunnies: Puerto Rico
Booties: Aldo
Earrings: Turkey

I don't know that this is my favorite look. Part of it is that the skirt was super wrinkled by the end of the school day, so I feel like I look a little sloppy.


But B really liked it and he liked the way the skirt fit, even though I was a little skeptical. So that made me feel a little better. I'm still not loving the look, though.


It could be the bagginess of the top combined with the pleated waist of the skirt. Or it could be the wrinkled mess that I'd become by the end of the day. Or it could be that this is kind of a boring look to begin with....


Help me out y'all. How can I make this work?

Mixology

Top: Zara
Skirt: Target
Booties: Aldo
Sunnies: Puerto Rico
Earrings: Target

I know what you're thinking: That's not your magical white shirt, Frances Joy! But it's time for EBEW, so I decided to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to do this. Besides, I only have pics of four white tee outfits; this works out perfectly!


I woke up feeling pretty this morning, though I couldn't tell you why. I just did. When I wake up feeling like that, I think I'm bolder in my clothing choices. I've been eyeing this stars and leopard combo for a while, but I didn't have the guts to actually put it on until today.


I had a back up outfit in mind, but once I put this on, I was in love. In. LOVE. I mean, how can you feel bad wearing stars AND leopard?! I feel like a rockstar. And besides, everyone here knows I dress like a crazy person and they don't even notice it anymore. Either that or I'm OWNING it. Probably the latter.


Also, you can't really tell, but my earrings have flowers on them. One more pattern, right? I mean, why not?

White shirt week day 1

Blazer: Apt 9 via Kohl's
Tee: Target (gift from intern A)
Jeans: Elle via Kohl's
Sandals: Chaps (gift from my mom)
Earrings: Target
Scarf: gift from my mom via Etsy (don't know which vendor)

Last Monday, our intern A gave me this white top which was pretty much the white tee I've been searching for. I decided to wear it all week, and I did, though I only got pics of four outfits. (That was not a totally original idea. I read it somewhere on the internet months ago and I've been thinking about doing it since. If you know where I read it, let me know...) This might be one of my favorite looks of the week, though, for real.


It was comfortable and warm and oh-so-cozy, which was perfect for a day of meetings in a very cold building. Also, these jeans fit after a week of gorging myself on the cruise. Seriously, I ate like a crazy person.


I enjoyed every minute of it, too. We were long overdue for a get away and it was so nice to be able to spend time with my family - especially my sweet, sweet niece. I love that kid beyond words, I tell you. Also nice? Getting tan. (Bad Frances. Though, in my defense, I slathered on the SPF 30 AND reapplied. It's just that the Caribbean sun missed me.)

EBEW: Yellow and a return to my roots

Tank: Target
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Target
Dress (worn as skirt): Target
Flip flops: Ann Taylor
Earrings: Turkey
Bracelet: gift from our intern, A.

Another Everybody, Everywear post, y'all. It was hard to come up with this look - not because I don't have much yellow, but because I love yellow and I couldn't decide what to wear. Apparently it was Target day, though, so I reached for this dress. (P.S. Hey, Target, if you want to sponsor me, we can talk. If not, I accept gift cards....)


I got in touch with my roots today and visited a sugar processing plant. My maternal grandmother grew up in a town that was basically a sugar plantation / processing plant and my great-grandfather and great-uncle worked there in some capacity. I'm not sure of all the particulars, but it was cool to see this thing that was, for so many years, the driving force behind the Puerto Rican economy. And, yeah, we're in Costa Rica (two totally different countries), but it was really cool.


They also process coffee at this place - it's the oldest cooperative in Costa Rica - so we got a tour of that, too.


And yeah, I took pictures while we were on our tour and pretended that no one else could see me. Behind me are the machines that move the sugar cane and break it down into little pieces. And then they squeeze it so the juice comes out. Eventually that thickens to molasses and then they put it in the centrifuge and you get raw sugar. You guys! Sugar processing! It's so exciting!


Or maybe that's just me....

Dress Your Best Week - Day 5: To lean on

Tee: J Crew
Skirt: Target
Belt: Target
Booties: Aldo
Bracelet: gift from A
Earrings: Turkey
Sunnies: Puerto Rico
Hair: courtesy of this tutorial (though I couldn't quite get the video to load, so I improvised.)

I will admit that I had a hard time deciding on the fifth feature to highlight this week. I was torn between my wide hips or my equally wide shoulders, and in the end I decided there's a lot of similarity between hips and thighs, so I decided to go with the shoulders.


I've often said that I have linebacker shoulders. I don't really know what a linebacker does because I prefer my football spelled fútbol, but I've heard they have broad shoulders. I do, too, especially for a woman of my stature. My mother is so tiny up top, with delicate little shoulders. My shoulders, however, come from my dad's side of the family. There is nothing delicate about my shoulders - they're wide and strong.


And while I've often been self-conscious about most of the other features I've talked about this week, I'm strangely proud of these shoulders. So I decided to play them up with a scoop neck top that's just a little ill-fighting in precisely that area - no scarf to draw the eye down, no necklace to serve the same purpose, just me and my shoulders in a simple tee.


Everyone says I look like my dad - la misma cara (the same face) - but I just don't see it. I do see him in these shoulders, my calves, and my bellybutton, though. (Yes, I know the last one is especially weird, but it's totally true.)


And I love that, because I love my daddy. I see him in my penchant for travel, in my work ethic, in my perfectionism (though I've got that coming from both parents), in my love of music, and my need to dream big. I feel like I talk a lot about what I've learned from my mom here on the blog, and she's really taught me a lot - a whole lot - but so has my dad.


My dad taught me to fight for things, that good things are worth making a sacrifice, that sometimes peer pressure works for the best, that I should demand the best treatment in every situation and relationship, and that I should let myself be led while dancing.


So thanks, Daddy, for all those lessons and for these shoulders. Oh, and I didn't drop anything, I just don't like looking at the camera. ;)

Dress Your Best Week - Day 4: Thunder

Jeans: J Crew
Tee: gift from a friend (similar to this one)
Sweater: Banana Republic
Shoes: Sperry
Earrings: Target

First of all, thanks for the support for yesterday's post. I was scared to talk about my chest on the Internet, but apparently I am not alone in that arena, so, again: thanks.
Second, just when you thought I couldn't get any more awkward, let's talk about my thighs, shall we?


I have thick thighs. Even when I was at the lowest weight of my adult life, my thighs were round and heavy. They've been this way for as long as I've had a woman's body, which as we discussed yesterday, came early in my life. And while I haven't always enjoyed it, and while the delightful young men in my 6th and 7th grade PE classes liked to shout "thunder thighs" when I ran past (it wasn't special treatment, they were that nice to all the girls), I've come to appreciate these thighs.


I appreciate them so much that now I wear skinny jeans (drawing attention the the fact that my leg is not a single long line) with a lighter colored top that ends at my widest point (drawing attention to said "flaw"). Because I'm so over rules that don't make me feel more comfortable in my skin.


These thighs, with their round heaviness, connect me to a line of women I love. My mom and my sister have thighs like these. My aunts and cousins do, too. It's in our DNA. There's something that's almost like validation when I see these quirky parts of me and remember that they connect me to the people I love most.


So, I appreciate my thighs today. No, they're not slim, and no, it's not easy to find jeans that fit in the waist and the thigh, but they're a point of connection. They are strong. They are mine.


Are there any parts of your body that make you feel connected to your family? Am I the only weird one?

Dress Your Best Week - Day 2: Thick skin

Tee: Target (men's undershirt)
Skirt: J Crew
Belt: Banana Republic
Scarf: gift from my uncles
Booties: Aldo
Bracelet: gift from our intern, A
Earrings: Turkey

Today, I'm celebrating my skin. This is a big step for me because I have not loved my skin for most of my life. This is another one of the things that I have learned to love about myself, mostly because it does its job. Skin is important, y'all.


So, when we moved to the States, Oprah taught my mom English. What I mean by that is that my mom watched Oprah to learn English. I thought Oprah was the most beautiful woman in the world, and I was pretty sure that in order to be beautiful, I had to be a lot darker than I was.


By the time I got to high school, I'd get a lot of "Aren't Puerto Ricans supposed to be darker?" comments. And though I knew - I know - that we come in a variety of shades, I felt like I was lacking. I was jealous of my sister's caramel tone, and I hid my skin, especially my legs, for many years because of their whiteness.


I don't know when things changed, when I got over the hiding and started showing off my skin and really caring for it - because it is seriously dry and flaky no matter how much cocoa butter I rub into it. I've been embracing my skin, though, in all it's (relatively) pale glory. I'm thankful that I can wear colors like green and yellow and orange. I'm thankful that jewel tones pop against my skin. I'm thankful that I rarely burn out in the sun, and that if I do, it turns to a tan the very next day. I'm thankful that white shows off my tan when I've got one and that I look good in black whether I'm tanned or not.


This is my skin. I'm finally okay with it.

Dress Your Best Week - Day 1: Waist not

Skirt: I made it
Tee: Target
Cami: ?
Cardigan: J Crew
Belt: Target
Socks: gift from my sister-in-law
Boots: Nine West
Earrings: Turkey

I'm participating in Dress Your Best week again this year, though I'm not sure how consistently the posts will be going up this week with our spotty internet. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I'm hoping that most of what I'll be showing off this week will be different from last year's choices. For one, my body has changed in the past year; for two, I've been embracing my body in new ways lately. So for this first installment, let's talk about my waist.


True story: I discovered my waist through blogging and a fitting for my wedding dress. See, my mom and my sister are super curvy. They're pear shaped and I always envied their tiny little upper bodies and wide hips. I was convinced that I was a rectangle. And then the tailor at my fitting gave me three different numbers for my measurements and I was like, "Oh, I've got a waist!"


And then I forgot about that and started thinking I was a rectangle again until my readers and commenters told me I was crazy and I was actually pretty hourglassy. So I started looking at my pictures and looking at my body, and yes. There it was: the waist.


Maybe that's kind of ridiculous, but I know I'm alone in the slightly warped (or a seriously distorted) sense of body. And it's taken a lot for me to start to see myself in a more realistic way, and I wouldn't say I'm totally there yet, but I do feel like I'm making progress. So, yeah, this recently discovered waist is one of the things I'm celebrating this week.


Has anyone else discovered something positive about their body through blogging?

And just to keep this light, a picture of my adorable kittens:

Elefante on the left, Pirata on the right. Aren't they cute?